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Oh boy has it been hot the past two weekends! So happy we made the investment in that swamp cooler six years ago. We’ve already had two porch parties since Memorial Day, but now we are just kicking back and enjoying the cool house and the fruits of our garden.

We’ve had a mint plant for a few years. I mostly used the leaves for garnish, to steep in hot water or in cold water. But I have discovered a few more recipes here and there to make the mint the star of the recipe.

This is one of our mint plants. It has behaved itself and not spread out like crazy as mint can do. We have another mint plant that did go wild last year. My husband ripped it out but the little bug-gar keeps sprouting little offspring. They are similar plants but the leaves are distinctly different. I am wondering if this well-behaved mint plant is spearmint flavored and the wild mint plant, peppermint in flavor. Hmmmm?

I was dreaming of ice cream in this heat so I perused my recipe books. After looking them over and reading reviews about type of ice cream, I decided to combine two recipes into one from the Cuisinart recipe booklet and from Alton Brown’s Good Eats 2: The Middle Years cookbook.

Ingredients:

3 cups half and half

1 cup heavy cream

8 large egg yolks

9 oz sugar

large bunch of mint leaves

3-6 oz of peppermint patties candy coarsely chopped

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Combine the half and half and cream in a saucepan and bring to simmer over medium heat stirring occasionally. Then remove from heat and add the mint leaves allowing them to steep for 20-30 minutes.

Whisk the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl until they lighten in color, then add in the sugar and mix until smooth.

Remove or strain the cream and mint mixture. Then temper the egg yolk and sugar mixture by ladling 1/3 of the cream mixture into the bowl whisking constantly. Then place the tempered cream and egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently until the custard thickens to coat the back of a spoon or a temp of 170-175 degrees F.

Transfer the custard into a new bowl or wash out the egg yolk bowl and then add the vanilla and cool at room temperature for 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for 8-10 hours (or overnight)

Pour the mixture into the prepped ice cream maker then add the candy and process for 20 minutes.

Serve as soft serve and place into a container to freeze and hard for 3-4 hours.

Patty’s Points:

1.I like the frozen custard or French-style type of ice cream which must contain 1.4 percent egg yolk solids to meet that definition.

2.You can substitute 1 teaspoon of peppermint oil instead of mint leaves but you would add it after the tempering of the egg yolks and cream mixture and omit the vanilla.

3.You can substitute the peppermint patties with mint chocolate chips or with good shaved dark chocolate and white chocolate.

It has two layers, Inner for the ice cream and Outer to insulate it from over-freezing and protecting it from forming ice crystals

It also is easy to store, taking up less space than traditional ice cream containers. It cost about $15.00 and I had a 10% off coupon which was nice.

5. The mint had more of a spearmint taste to it and it gave the cream a slight green color. I like it but I like peppermint better. I’ll have to try the wild mints leaves to see if it has more of a peppermint flavor. You could add a few drops of green food coloring to get the full color experience of mint.

6.Some of the recipes called for more cream (3 cups) and whole milk (1 1/2 cups) or varying amounts of cream 2 cups half and half to 1 cup cream. Use whatever combo you wish for your taste.

7. Another option would be to use the peppermint oil 1 tsp and add crushed peppermint candies or candy canes and make it festive for the Christmas holidays.

Like this:

The weather this summer has been unbearable, so far. Colorado has had horrible fires that thankfully, are nearly all contained by the time of this post. It was hot and humid on the 4th of July, so ice cream was the best remedy to the solution.

The Fearless Cooking Club challenge was for each member to bring an ice cream dessert. A few members were concerned about what to make as they had no ice cream maker. Alas, everyone rose to the challenge of making ice cream, and for most members, for the very first time.

To begin our “star”, Joy made three, yes you heard me, three ice cream desserts. She is holding the Honey Ice Cream recipe by The Hungry Australian blog site. Joy had honey all the way from Mt Vernon, Virginia. This recipe does not require an ice cream maker and the cream is whipped prior to combining all the ingredients. We only wished we had some honey from the bees who pollenate the eucalyptus trees.

Joy then brought out a lavender ice cream from an edition of English Home magazine. One taste transported me to a tea room sipping hot tea and a lovely biscuit. And lastly she made a homemade ice cream cake out of two cartons of ice cream and cookies. She found the ice cream cake container at home. Her basement is a great supply closet for all kinds of kitchen equipment.

Cindy, our newest member, made the WordPress Freshly Pressed recipe Christmas in July Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches from Cookie Talk. She said that she messed up the gingerbread as she didn’t have parchment paper. But she put the “damaged” gingerbread on the bottom layer and no one knew there was a problem. She had a cute presentation didn’t she?

Lastly I brought my ice cream: Maple Bacon Cayenne (on the right, this time marinated with bacon) and the Mexican Style Chocolate Ice Cream (left). The bacon was chopped and provided as a topping.

Patty’s Points:

1. Everyone was equally impressed by each other’s efforts. Luckily, husbands and grown children came by to partake in all the sweets. We had lots of savory like veggies, chips and dips to balance out the sweet.

2. All of the ice cream treats were delicious. My personal favorite was the semifreddo. It was so unique and fresh. Anne Burrell is becoming one of my favorite chefs on the Food Network. Her recipes are so tasty and easy to replicate at home.

Halfway through the summer. The monsoon rains started and cooled everything off for a few days. It will be back in the 90s later this week. Stay cool out there.

Next on the 4th of July Fearless Cooking Club challenge is an ice cream recipe I found from WordPress feature of ten food blogs to follow this summer. The Patterned Plate featured a beautiful picture of this orange, luscious, exotic dessert I wanted to dive into it (it was a hot day). Mango sounded so refreshing.

I may have bought one mango before in my life and it was hard as a rock. I have a fear of produce I have failed to use successfully. Lucky for me I when I went into the local grocery store there were cartons of ripe mangos for sale. On the side of the carton was directions on how to cut open a mango. Hurray for me, pictures! Oh the visual learner that I am.

Cut the mango into chunks, macerate with 1/3 of the sugar if still hard and not quite ripe and cook over a low heat. Use a hand blender and puree the mangos.

**See this time I figured out to use the hand blender instead of dumping a big mess in the food processor**

Now add 2/3 of the coconut milk and all the cream; then add a bit of the lime juice and then taste. Then you will be adding a more of the sugar and the coconut milk a little bit at a time; puree and then taste.

Leave the bowl in the refrigerator for a few hours before churning in the ice cream maker. The Patterned Plate author recommends to churn it longer than custard type ice cream. Return it to the freezer to set. Before serving let it set out to soften and then serve.

Top with toasted coconut flakes or mango chunks.

Patty’s Points

1. Absolutely lovely. It was so refreshing to the palate. Do you hear me singing?

2. Best eaten fresh. After several days in the freezer it lost its beautiful essence. DH liked it too.

3. Pretty easy once you figure out how to cut open a mango. The mango must be ripe. If the mango is not ripe The Patterned Plate author recommends macerating it in sugar for several hours and then cooking it on the stove top to soften it.

Next up on the ice cream challenge….hmmmm not sure. I think I would like to try a something with chocolate. I’ll be searching.

The 4th of July is nearly upon us. I know, isn’t it hard to believe that June is coming to an end? I am such a planner that I decided back in May that Fearless Cooking Club would eat ice cream for an Independence Day gathering.

I got an ice cream maker for Christmas and have been reading recipes everywhere, looking a basic and eclectic recipes.It has been quite a learning experience.

On my December post I had The Cookie Exchange challenge. I thought I would make a similar challenge for myself with ice cream for July. I will make three different ice cream recipes for the cooking club’s Ice Cream Social and choose which one was the best.

Whisk the cream mixture into the egg mixture until incorporated. After mixing together then pour the back onto the pot over the stovetop whisking until it reaches 180 degrees. Then immediately have an ice bath ready to cool off the pot.

While waiting for the cool off :

Whip 1 C heavy cream to stiff peaks

Fold the plain whipped cream into the cooled sugar/cream mixture in the pot.

After folding the two liquids mixtures together, pour into ice cube trays to cool off quickly in the freezer.

While the ice cube trays are cooling off, cook up eight pieces of bacon until crisp to have ready. After 4 hours then take the frozen ice cube tray contents and mix with an additional 1 C of cream and place into food processor. If you want to add cayenne, I would say a couple of dashes to 1/8 tsp according to taste.

Add the bacon at the very last step of the food processing Pour into a plastic container that can tolerate freezing. Shake or invert the mixture every 30 minutes to keep the bacon from settling to the bottom of the container.

Patty’s Points

1. This was my first attempt at making ice cream in an ice bath. It wasn’t difficult, just time consuming. It would be a great recipe to make the night before serving it at a dinner party.

2. Wow! Lotsa eggs, cream and sugar. It was really creamy. Most custard ice cream recipes I’ve seen ask for four egg yolks and this one asked for eight! The texture was good. Maybe a little too much sugar? Almost 3 Cups. Wow again.

3. Really bacon-y. I served it to my dear husband (dh). He said it was “really maple-y” but I think the bacon pieces were overwhelming incorporated into the cream mixture.

After I made my batch I was watching an old Iron Chef America on bacon. Iron Chef Cat Cora made maple bacon ice cream but she cooked the bacon and gave it the flavor of the bacon by marinating cooked pieces of bacon in with the cream mixture then removing it. Essence of bacon, not chunks. I think that is why she is an Iron Chef, the woman is brilliant.

4. The quick freeze mixture with the ice cube trays was an interesting technique. I’m not so sure if it was necessary because I didn’t get back to the final mixture until the following day. It’s a great technique for those without an ice cream maker. I bet it would’ve worked in my ice cream maker fine.

5. My mixture overflowed the food processor and was messy. Next time I’ll use the hand blender (another Christmas present) to incorporated the mixture.

Good tasting recipe, sans the bacon pieces. It would be great to marinate the bacon in the cream mixture, then use the bacon bits to garnish the ice cream.